🍷 Chaptalisation

Chaptalisation is adding sugar to grape must before fermentation. The aim is to raise the future strength of the wine when the grapes have not ripened enough and have little sugar. This usually happens in cold years and in cool regions.

Ordinary sugar from beet or cane is added. Yeast turns it into alcohol, just like grape sugar. It is important that the wine does not become sweet: the sugar is fully fermented and adds only alcohol. If too much sugar is added, the taste becomes unnatural, so the amount is limited by law.

The method is named after the French chemist Jean-Antoine Chaptal, who described it in the early 19th century. It is used in Germany, northern France, Austria and other countries, and in warm regions such as Italy and Spain it is usually forbidden. Chaptalisation is one of the permitted practices of winemaking. It is not stated on the label. Hotter countries sometimes raise acidity instead of strength.